Richard Moss

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday cleared the way for Mayor Eric Garcetti to overhaul the five-member panel that oversees the city's electricity and water utility. On a 15-0 vote, the council confirmed four new commissioners at the Department of Water and Power: former U.S. Rep. Mel Levine, political consultant Jill Banks Barad, attorney William Funderburk Jr. and foundation director Michael Fleming. The four will join Christina Noonan, who was appointed to the panel three years ago by then-Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Nearly 80 years after the Federal League offered a brief challenge to the American and National leagues, baseball's continuing labor dispute has created new interest in a rival or alternative major league.

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday cleared the way for Mayor Eric Garcetti to overhaul the five-member panel that oversees the city's electricity and water utility. On a 15-0 vote, the council confirmed four new commissioners at the Department of Water and Power: former U.S. Rep. Mel Levine, political consultant Jill Banks Barad, attorney William Funderburk Jr. and foundation director Michael Fleming. The four will join Christina Noonan, who was appointed to the panel three years ago by then-Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Nearly 80 years after the Federal League offered a brief challenge to the American and National leagues, baseball's continuing labor dispute has created new interest in a rival or alternative major league.

If Fernando Valenzuela leaves the Los Angeles Dodgers, it won't be to join the New York Yankees. The Yankees said today that they are not interested in signing the free agent left-hander. "There has been a lot of talk in the media concerning an apparent Yankee interest in Fernando Valenzuela, and that is simply not true," George Bradley, New York's vice president of player personnel, said in a statement.

A Big Bear City mother accused of murdering her 4-year-old daughter, and then covering up the crime for two years with an elaborate story about sending the girl to Italy, pleaded not guilty Friday in San Bernardino County Superior Court. Sharon Gill, 47, a stay-at-home mother of three, was arrested Feb. 4 on suspicion of murdering her daughter, Lillian. The girl was last seen in March 2002; her body has never been found.

Skylines around the world went dim Saturday night in celebration of Earth Hour, a symbolic hour of darkness to remind people of the need to combat global warming. In the United States, Chicago, Atlanta, Phoenix, San Francisco and dozens of other communities participated. The World Wildlife Fund orchestrated the event, based on last year's popular Earth Hour in Sydney, Australia.

Bruce Jay Breger, a business manager with a celebrity clientele, was arrested Thursday and charged with embezzling almost $3 million from a professional basketball player, Mark Jackson, guard for the Utah Jazz. The U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles charged Breger, 40, with two counts of wire fraud Wednesday. Authorities alleged that Breger had made about 40 unauthorized wire transfers from Jackson's account at a City National Bank in Westwood to his own account from 1999 to 2001.

A40-year-old man, arrested on warrants for traffic violations, was found dead in the Los Angeles Police Department's Van Nuys Jail 2 1/2 hours after he was moved to his own cell because of complaints that he was creating a disturbance, police said Tuesday. An official police statement on the death said Richard Moss complained of seizures when he was arrested in the 11700 block of Exposition Boulevard in West Los Angeles at 1:35 p.m. Saturday.

Jack Morris and the Minnesota Twins were unable to reach agreement on a contract Tuesday, and Morris' agent said the free-agent right-hander would turn his attention to the New York Yankees. Morris, who has won more games than any pitcher in the 1980s, offered the Twins two-, three- and four-year contract deals, but the Twins rejected all proposals in an afternoon meeting, Richard Moss said. Morris is scheduled to meet with representatives of the Yankees in New York on Thursday.